Resources companies must take ‘leap of faith’ to improve workplace culture, says mining consultant

Mining companies can’t expect to improve their workplace culture until they take a “leap of faith” and commit to psychological safety for their employees.

Having a flexible leadership style and removing hierarchical structures by not “rolling out the red carpet” for bosses when they visit sites are some of the ways in which companies can create a “zero harm” environment, according to an operational improvement consultant.

Wes Austerberry, head of mining and metals at dss+ and a former superintendent at Rio Tinto, has worked with numerous tier 1 and tier 2 companies around improving productivity and believes psychological safety is the “next evolution of the safety journey”.

“It’s taking us from that view of physical safety through to what we call zero harm, which is zero harm to the individual whether it be physically or emotionally,” he said.

“The mining guys are genuinely wanting to do something about it but they’re just really struggling . . . because it’s a very different way to go about it than the typical projects and technical solutions they work on.”

It was last week revealed that 40 per cent that of the Minerals Council of Australia’s mining company members were yet to sign up to a pledge to stamp out sexual harassment in their workforces nearly a year after the code was launched.

Mr Austerberry, an engineer who was working with mining companies long before the release of a WA parliamentary report into sexual misconduct in the FIFO industry, said miners were on a similar journey to that of the safety challenge 20 years ago.

“It requires that same leap of faith, that line in the sand,” he said.

It comes as dss+ published a report as part of an ongoing series on Tuesday outlining how mining companies — which it said were “at a point of reckoning” — can take steps to implement cultural change.

“Cultural issues are endemic to the industry. They can no longer claim a lack of awareness or discount the matter as merely isolated incidents. They must act to tackle and transform,” the report said.

Mr Austerberry noted mining companies were often run by engineers, or linear thinkers, whereas mining culture in fact requires “adaptive leadership” to deal with challenges that are often complex and ambiguous in nature.

He said part of the reason for slow progress on sexual harassment reform could be attributed to conservative mining companies wanting to “know all the answers” on how changes will affect their business, rather than commit to working through the unknowns.

“Mining companies need to create a growth mindset which makes it OK to fail. There are certain things you don’t want to fail on . . . but where the consequences aren’t as big you need to get into that adaptive leadership approach,” Mr Austerberry said.

However, Mr Austerberry recognised shifts in thinking will take some time and said companies could introduce early changes — such as allowing mining bosses to see their sites “warts and all”.

“The way it happens now is a red carpet gets rolled out (when they come to site) . . . and it’s a very controlled environment. This is part of the reason why senior leaders aren’t seeing the true problem — because they’re getting cotton-woolled,” he said.